D&D 5E 5th Edition Intelligence

[Mondobone]

So correct me if I'm wrong here, but the only uses I can find for intelligence are wizard spell saves, knowledge checks, and avoiding death by illithid. That seems pretty limited to me when compared to other stats. I've noticed that the players at my group all tend to completely tank their int scores because there's just no point in having any.

Do you guys think intelligence is okay as is, with so few uses? Has Wizards said anything about what their design goals were for intelligence?

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I think some illusion saves as well

 

[Hriston]

You forgot spell attacks and Investigation.

 

[The Lich]

Some of us believe in role-playing our characters, so playing one with low Int can be pretty obnoxious, regardless of how little mechanical effect it may have.

 

[Hrothgar Rannúlfr]

Player: My PC has a brilliant idea to do...
DM: You're character has an Intelligence of 6. Make an Intelligence check to see if your character could think of that. DC 14.

 

[JValeur]

I've houseruled that you get one bonus language or one bonus proficiency in a knowledge skill or one bonus proficiency in a tool, for each positive modifier of intelligence you have. That brings intelligence up to par with Charisma, I feel.

 

[Sunseeker]

Player: My PC has a brilliant idea to do...
DM: You're character has an Intelligence of 6. Make an Intelligence check to see if your character could think of that. DC 14.

This. Player desires are translated into the game through their characters. Brilliant OOC plans don't come across so well when you've got an Int of 6.

 

[iserith]

This. Player desires are translated into the game through their characters. Brilliant OOC plans don't come across so well when you've got an Int of 6.

I read Hrothgar's post as humorous. Is this really a thing you do at your table?

 

[Mondobone]

Some of us believe in role-playing our characters, so playing one with low Int can be pretty obnoxious, regardless of how little mechanical effect it may have.

Well..."low" int. 8 int is still the intelligence of an average person, last I checked. You're not exactly lobotomized. And I don't think requiring a minimum int to come up with ideas is a good idea, either. I mean, really, a player could come up with an idea and then just tell it to the wizard? Is that even a major restriction? Like I don't think players dumping their intelligence scores is really a problem, it's not something that imbalances the game. I just think the fact that so many people do it so readily implies that maybe it doesn't have a lot of mechanical use which is something worth looking at.

I've houseruled that you get one bonus language or one bonus proficiency in a knowledge skill or one bonus proficiency in a tool, for each positive modifier of intelligence you have. That brings intelligence up to par with Charisma, I feel.

See, that's not a bad idea. Kind of like how int governed skill points in 3rd edition. Not sure why they removed that system. I can think of a couple potential reasons, but it they didn't add anything to the int score to make up for its lost utility there.

You forgot spell attacks and Investigation

I think some illusion saves as well

Yeah, I left out a few other saving throws, and wizards do use it for spell attacks as well as spell saves. My point being that wizards are the only class that really make use of intelligence as a primary statistic. It does govern saving throws, but only a small subset, and every other statistics also does that so it's not really something that makes it unique or useful. If I came to the point of character creation where I was adding points to things for saving throws, I think dexterity and constitution would come first, probably followed by wisdom.

I did forget investigation, that's a good catch.

 

[The Human Target]

Some of us believe in role-playing our characters, so playing one with low Int can be pretty obnoxious, regardless of how little mechanical effect it may have.

What?